Courage to think big

I have been battling depression a lot lately. Mostly in silence. My blog has been ignored as my life whizzes by at a breakneck speed. I fill every waking hour with something to do trying to maintain some sort of purpose. I take on an ungodly amount of projects yet feel completely lost in them, like I wading in to too deep water and then getting pulled even further out by the riptide. The shore slips further from my view as I frantically swim harder towards it.

I work and work and work. I learned that from my dad. He was always working and had no time for us. My mom too, was a workaholic creating two latch-key kids. It was a free life without much supervision. I was always involved in some after school activity while my sister stirred up trouble. (Not to say she was always stirring up trouble, but it did seem like it.) I never liked having an authority figure in my life. My parents readily gave me my reigns at an early age and never looked back. I can see that in my eldest daughter. I guess being married has always made me feel like I handed over the reigns to someone who has no idea where they are going. So in lieu of sitting up there watching us pass the same mistakes and cross the same bridges I make myself busy. I hide and prepare. For what, I don’t know. The day I get off the wagon? The day I steal back the reigns? I still don’t like to have someone feel as if they have to be “the Man” in the house. If that entails taking out the trash and fixing the cars, then, by all means, you are “the Man.” But if it means that I am below you or who I am, how I feel, or what I’ve done has less value then you most certainly are not “the Man.” And neither am I.

I have been struggling with my weight ever since I graduated from college. I am currently the biggest I have ever been with the exception of my pregnancies. (That was really hard to type.) I have been brought up to believe that this “imperfection” makes me worth less as a woman. I have been feeding my depression as if it were some raging furnace, trying to satiate something inside. It doesn’t take much for me to gain weight, either. Honestly, I have a fat gene that snickers every time I put anything even remotely unhealthy into my body. The sad part is that my goal was to have my ring be able to slip off my fat finger and then I would deserve to be free. How fucked up is that? Like being skinny would give me a pass. That in that event I would now be ready for someone to like me or that I would be worthy of my own attractions towards women because now I looked the part? Cause you know, you can’t be anything but a hot femme, right? It’s the only acceptable alternative to a perfect housewife. Ugh. I disgust myself sometimes. Why do we put ourselves into these boxes that just shut us in?

My mom once went on a tangent about how “lucky we are” because our husbands somehow found us attractive, apparently overlooking our gigantic waistlines. That was sarcasm, cause I’m not huge by any means, but man it sure felt like it when she said that. At one point when I was a vegetarian and at a size 4, I commented on my own “thinness” and she retorted that I would never be thin, but I was skinnier than I used to be. That stuck to me too. I lost my appetite to try and gained one to not care that day. I’m trying to teach myself how much I deserve to be happy at whatever size I am. I can be unhappy with how I feel in the body that I have, but I must accept and love it as a friend and not bully myself. They all say you have to love yourself, and I thought I did. What I’ve realized that I’m loving the future me way more than who I am at this moment. I keep looking at what I might look like if I lost weight, or if I was single, or if I did everything my way. The problem is that tomorrow is over there and we are and will always be living in today. So now I gotta figure out how to love myself as i stand today, fat fingers and all. I have to come to terms with what I deserve, because it’s a lot more than what I was giving to myself. I don’t want to wait the rest of my life to begin because I’m not quite ready yet. We will never be ready, we just have to be present when it happens.

So here I am, finally trying to kill the fat gene with punctuated bouts of Yoga, Zumba, and juicing. Once in a while I’ll try to run a 5k but my motivation had waned so much it recently didn’t happen. Who cares, I’ll still try to run. I want to feel good and excercise does help. I try not to bully myself in the mirror. I desperately yearn to accept how I look at the moment. It is a struggle. I reassure myself that this is a loveable body. If someone doesn’t love it, it’s on them and not on me. I hope to one day find kindness in my heart and give myself a break. I want to be healthy and will always want to feel fit, but I don’t want to hold myself back for what I am not. We all need to find love for who we are in this very moment. Life is so fleeting and today will never be here again. So when we move from it, we all must move towards healing and acceptance. Courage is beauty in its purest form.

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About the author

I am a married woman looking for answers to questions about myself. Scary thing is, I'm pretty sure I know what they are.
I am married and have two kids, two dogs, a husband, a mortgage and oh, by the way, I'm a lesbian. How did this happen? The more I look back, the more I realize I have always been this way, but as I get older I have less will to keep this chick in the closet, so I have slowly let her out. This is my story. I hope that it helps you on your journey of to understand a loved one who is struggling with their identity.
I lost sight of my goals in life and what makes me so very happy so now I am jump starting my life. The only thing I know is that the only "right answer" is to follow your heart.
My blog is honeyImaLesbian.wordpress.com

It’s really hard sometimes to remember that there are so many people who share the same experiences, yet they are all too visceral to the one experiencing them. So you forget that you are not alone. Thank you. Hugs.

I love and hate how much I can relate to this. The struggle is so real and so very painful. We are our wost enemies and going through a situation like this doesn’t help one bit. Keep your chin up! Be proud of who you are. From what I’ve read, you are an amazing person. Always remember that.

I live in the tomorrow state way too much and it’s not good so I try not to but that’s still difficult. There is no real wisdom to impart from me, aside from, be yourself. Do what makes you happy and leave the rest out as much as possible.

I have that fat gene, too, and sometimes it’s more present than other times. I think our body always reflects what’s going on inside us, but we try to convince ourselves it’s the other way around. I’m in a down cycle as far as energy, and instead of attacking all forms of exercise at once, I’m trying to do one thing a day that is active and gives me time to think — walk, run, walk/run, stretch, yoga. I find giving myself little goals works best for me. I’m also trying to read more, eat GOOD food (not diet, but LOVE everything I put in my mouth, no eating just because). I know the heat in your neck of the woods doesn’t help, either.
Keep being nice to yourself. Oh, and YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!

Thank you and yes taking things one at a time is really the best way to do it. I wish I had the wherewithall to slow myself down. The problem I have is that it’s like overeating, where you just no longer think, you just do. Auto-pilot kicks in and then you are just moving without much feeling. Thank you and fat genes be damned, we are all beautiful!

You sound like an amazingly beautiful lady. My heart goes out to you, and to the others who have posted here. God how I wish to meet you, and the other fabulous women who posted responses. You are stronger than you think and your words are my inspiration.